Once a patient presents in the ED, admit only those who truly need acute care. This is easier said than done. Often ED clinicians are not confident patients will receive the care they need outside the hospital and admit patients who do not need acute care as a precaution. Leaders can correct this impulse by creating care pathways within the ED to connect non-acute patients with the right subacute care.
Toolkit
How to direct patients to the most appropriate site of care
Learn two tactics to direct patients to the most appropriate site of care.
Updated -
July 2, 2020
Overview
The most efficient way to improve throughput is preventing an avoidable admission altogether. There is considerable opportunity across the care continuum to ensure that only those who need acute care are admitted to inpatient beds.
RESOURCES TO treat non-emergent patients in sub-acute settings
- Increase access
- Exclusion criteria
- iTriage - Nurse triage line
- Minimize high-acuity mental health needs through crisis management
- ED alternatives for homeless patients
- Justice department partnership for behavioral health
- Right-sizing ED utilization for acute behavioral health patientspdf
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Pathway
- Police, Ambulance, and Clinical Early Response (PACER)
resources to shift away from default hospital admission
- Low-acuity fast track
- Criteria-based mid-acuity segmentation
- Geriatric ED
- Visibility-enhanced patient cohorting
- Dedicated follow-up referral specialist
- Demand-driven observation unit sizing
- Observation unit inclusion/exclusion criteria/decision tree
- Emory Healthcare emergency department clinical decision unit operations
- Patient-directed observation status explanation
- Finding cost savings with improved observation usepdf
- Perfecting CV short stay patient management